“Don’t hold back. This is a meeting for y’all to let us hear your complaints,” Public Service Commissioner Terry Dunn said to open an informal PSC hearing on Mobile Gas rates held Monday evening. The commissioners got that and more. Calling them cavalier, on the side of industry, and not deserving of the public’s trust, customers of Mobile Gas... Full story »

The Alabama Public Service Commission is holding a meeting tonight in Mobile to discuss the rates charged by Mobile Gas. While three similar meetings have been held in Montgomery, tonight's meeting gives Mobile Gas customers a chance to speak directly to the Public Service Commission. For the last decade, Mobile Gas has consistently ranked among the most expensive utilities in... Full story »

Six sets of wingtips, velvety smooth and the color of brown mustard, slice through the surface, splashing anyone standing next to the tank. The rays are big, about 15 pounds, and fly through the water in the Estuarium’s new Rays of the Bay touch tank as gracefully as birds soar through the air. The tank opens to the... Full story »

A three-year study of an Alabama marsh suggests the 2010 BP spill had little effect on the number of juvenile fish, shrimp and crabs living there before and after the disaster. There was a drop in the number of daggerblade shrimp, the most common resident of the marsh, during the year of the spill, but their numbers returned to... Full story »

A record number of manatees have been killed by a red tide outbreak along Florida's southwest coast this winter. With 174 dead as of Tuesday afternoon, the die off represents a setback for a manatee population that is now large enough that federal officials are considering removing the creatures from the endangered species list. None of the manatees tagged in... Full story »

The ancient forest found 60 feet underwater about 10 miles offshore of Alabama is much older than originally thought. I collected samples of the trees during an AL.com scuba diving expedition to the forest. Those samples were sent to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating and found to be more than 50,000 years old. Scientists who examined the... Full story »

` A $500,000 donation from the 3M Foundation will be used to purchase and manage 130 acres along the northern edge of the Bankhead National Forest. The land includes a number of streams that feed into the Black Warrior River. Those streams are home to dozens of species of mussels, fish, and the rare Black Warrior waterdog, a giant salamander whose... Full story »

Alabama Power reported a decline in emissions for 2012, and linked the reduction in air pollution to the decreased use of coal at its facilities. Emissions of nitrogen oxides, a key component in the formation of ground level ozone, were down 28 percent compared to 2010, and down 78 percent compared to 1996 levels, according to data provided by the... Full story »

A report released Friday by an energy industry think tank states that the system used to set utility profits and rates in Alabama “is unfair to customers, is no longer needed, unjustifiably rewards the utility company and is costly to the citizens of the state.” Full story »

Eight senators from coastal states asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the way the National Marine Fisheries estimates the size of fish populations in U.S. waters. Called stock assessments by the fisheries service, those estimates are used to set annual catch limits for recreational and commercial fisheries. For the last decade, scientists and fishermen have argued that the federal... Full story »

Mobile Gas has asked a judge to issue a gag order on lawyers representing people living in Prichard's contaminated Eight Mile community. Mobile Gas filed a motion for a protective order on February 19 designed to prevent the opposing lawyers from speaking to the media. The request came a week after AL.com reported that Mobile Gas may have spilled... Full story »

Sometimes it is easy to predict when a story will generate a lot of commentary among readers. Crooked politicians, murders, and companies doing bad things to people are sure fire topics that will get the readers buzzing. But shark teeth? I posted a story about collecting fossilized shark teeth in a creek and set off a religious discussion that included... Full story »

Dog River's shoreline disappeared behind a wall of garbage after heavy rains pelted Mobile Monday afternoon. Televisions, garbage cans, and thousands of Styrofoam cups and plastic bottles formed huge rafts along the river, as they have so often after storms. Kayaker Rob Nykvist has been documenting the trash floating in the river for two years. He said the recent installation... Full story »

The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for South Alabama. A warning means "flooding is imminent or occurring." The weather service advises anyone in a flood zone to seek higher ground immediately. Click here for the latest warnings and forecasts from the National Weather Service. Heavy rain Sunday night and Monday morning mean the ground is already... Full story »

While most restoration projects along the Gulf Coast are still stalled out waiting for money from the RESTORE Act to be released, Alabama is about to build another set of protective reefs on the shores of Mobile Bay. The 100-1000 coalition launched the first restoration project on the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the BP oil spill at Helen... Full story »

The Tennessee Riverkeeper filed notice Tuesday of intent to sue the current owners of the old city of Florence landfill for violations of the Clean Water Act. The suit alleges that contaminated liquid from the landfill has been bubbling up from a nearby spring for decades and flowing to Cypress Creek and the Tennessee River. People filing lawsuits under the... Full story »